A woman who was raped by three men on Brighton beach while she was unconscious has told a court the attack has left an “unbearable” mark on her life.
The victim, whose identity is protected by law, became visibly emotional as she described the 25-minute ordeal during the sentencing hearing for the three men today.
Speaking from behind a screen, her voice faltering, she told the court: “They destroyed my life that night — they violated me in every way.
“I could tear my skin off and still feel dirty.”
The court heard she had been on a night out with friends in Brighton when the three failed asylum seekers took her to a secluded section of the beach, where they carried out a sustained sexual assault on the defenceless victim.
It later emerged that one of the attackers, Egyptian national Karin Al-Danasurt, had previously been convicted of murder in Egypt in 2022 before fleeing to Europe and crossing the Channel illegally in 2024.
UK authorities were unaware of the conviction until Al-Danasurt disclosed it himself in his asylum application.
Al-Danasurt is being sentenced for multiple counts of rape against the same victim alongside Ibrahim Alshafe, 26, also from Egypt, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, from Iran.
Karin Al-Danasurt, who was found guilty of gang-rape, also has a previous conviction for murder
Iranian national Abdulla Ahmadi was convicted by jurors, who deliberated for more than 16 hours
Ibrahim Alshafe, also from Egypt, was convicted alongside his two co-defendants
Reading her witness statement at the crown court in Hove, the woman said: ‘I don’t think I will ever drink again or go clubbing or go out in general.
‘It affects me in every way in daily life – most of the time it is okay, but sometimes it is unbearable.
‘Most nights when I try to fall asleep I can hear the seagulls and them [the rapists] laughing.
‘It feels like I am back on the beach that night.
‘My skin crawls and no matter how much I scrub it I still cannot get clean.
‘I feel so embarrassed to have my body violated that night.
‘I don’t think I will ever have a partner again.’
She added: ‘Sometimes not remembering might be better. I ask myself what kind of person does this, let alone three?’
The victim of the callous attack left the nightclub shortly after 5am and made her way along the seafront, before being attacked behind a shed on Brighton Beach
The three men were convicted of multiple counts of rape in April following a five-week trial.
Al-Danasurt, 21, was found guilty of four rapes, while Alshafe and Ahmadi were each convicted of two rapes.
The judge, Her Honour Judge Christine Henson KC, will hand their sentences down later today.
All three have had their asylum claims turned down, and are expected to be deported.
The Home Office said all foreign national offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation ‘at the earliest opportunity’.
The trial heard how the trio filmed themselves getting ready at one of their asylum hotels then behaved like a ‘predatory pack’ after spotting the victim as she staggered along the promenade when she became separated from her friends after a night out.
Approaching her in the street at around 5.45am on October 4 last year, two of the men engaged her in conversation, and just four minutes later they could be seen on CCTV camera walking her towards a ramp down to the beach.
Al-Danasurt, pictured seated alongside co-defendants Ahmadi (centre) and Alshafe (right), all entered the country illegally before sexually assaulting a vulnerable woman
The woman was then led behind a Beach Patrol shack and, as she drifted in and out of consciousness, Ahmadi and Alshafe brutally raped her.
The pair were joined by Al-Danasurt who filmed her on his phone, laughing and repeatedly calling her: ‘Dirty b****, dirty b****.’
At one point he grabbed hold of her face, forced open her mouth and spat in it while encouraging his friends to do the same.
CCTV footage showed the group chatting up and groping other women throughout the night, including a friend of the woman they raped.
The trio then went back to one of their asylum hotels and had a barbecue.
Prosecutor Hanna Llewellyn-Waters KC said they had not seen their victim as a human being but as a piece of ‘meat’, and had ‘a warped sence of pride in their debasement’ of her.
She described the trio’s behaviour today as ‘predatory, callous and contemptuous’, and said they were ‘devoid of humanity’.
All three denied raping the woman. Al-Danasurt even shamelessly told jurors he was trying to ‘help’ the woman by filming her, and thereby building up evidence of the attack.
Al-Danasurt grins as he was led to the prison van after a previous court appearance
But he did nothing to stop the violent assaults, and told jurors that ‘rape is sex’.
The other two said the sex was consensual.
Giving evidence during the trial, the woman told the court she was ‘begging them to stop’ as she drifted in and out of consciousness, but they did not.
She told jurors: ‘Every time I close my eyes I can see them laughing at me. Every night it bothers me.
‘They thought it was funny. It wasn’t consensual at all. They have literally ruined my whole life.
‘I didn’t say they could do that. My skin crawls because of what they did to me.
‘They’re evil and they’ve ruined my life.’
She described herself as ‘paralytic drunk’ and said she had no recollection of how she came to be on Brighton beach.
The migrants filmed themselves having a barbecue at their asylum hotelafter raping the woman
In one CCTV clip, Alshafe could be seen speaking to an unknown blonde female in Horizon nightclub in the early hours of October 4.
As she could not speak Arabic and he could not speak English, the pair communicated via the Google Translate app.
In a series of texts she asked him where he was from and told him he was welcome in the UK but questioned his motive for coming to the country.
She asked him what his ‘goal’ was for the future and how he saw his life panning out in Britain.
Reading from the message, prosecutor Ms Llewellyn-Waters said the woman asked: ‘Is your only goal here to marry a British woman?’
He replied: ‘I am in this country. I will build my future, meet a woman, get married, have children and become a citizen.’
The case again exposed the fragility of the UK’s borders, with Al-Danasurt among the plethora of small boat migrants thought to have slipped into the country under an alias.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said following the conviction: ‘There are people who are taking our country for a ride, are coming here trying to claim asylum, which is for genuine refugees, when really they come here to do harm to others.
The trio were sentenced at Hove Trial Centre, not far from Brighton beach where the unconscious woman was raped
‘This is why it’s really important that we solve this small boats crisis, that’s why I’ve changed the Conservative Party policy.
‘As a woman in particular, I do worry so much about a lot of men coming here with attitudes that are backwards and medieval and thinking that they can do whatever they like.
‘We need to be very tough on them.’
Robert Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister until 2023, who now represents Reform, said: ‘These evil men should never have been in our country.
‘I couldn’t care less if they have a hard time back in Egypt, they should be deported so they never step foot in this country again.
‘The small boat crisis is a national security emergency. Murderers, spies and gangsters are crossing with impunity and it’s destroying lives.’
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch, said: ‘Scum like Al-Danasurt should never be admitted, let alone allowed to stay, to commit more heinous crimes.
‘What about the human rights of innocent victims? He must be deported, now.’
The prosecutor told court today that ‘extensive requests’ had taken place ‘at the very highest of levels’ to try and verify Al-Danasurt’s previous murder conviction, but without success.
Ms Llewellyn-Waters said: ‘What is quite clear during the course of the second full interview (with the Home Office) is, it is his account that he stands convicted of murder in absence and he has received a sentence of 15 years.’
She said Al-Danasurt said he was innocent.
